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Status: Philosophy of Religion (2026 - June)

(Text as at 13/07/2026 19:20:38)

Rationale for this Project

• See my Christian page¹ and onward links from there for an explanation of how I got in to and out of evangelical Christianity. This is still a live issue for me, and the reason I originally undertook formal philosophical training.
• The connection to my current philosophical researches arises from the standard religious hope that resurrection – or some other form of post-mortem survival – is possible. This is a cornerstone of religious claims and expectations, at least in the Abrahamic religions, from those of suicide bombers to those of more pacific persons. I wish to go back to the considerations that originally motivated Locke and research the metaphysical possibility of resurrection, or other post-mortem survival, for beings such as us. My current opinion is that resurrection for human beings is metaphysically impossible₂, given that substance dualism is false.
• In late September 2010 I took the Philosophy of Religion³ Module of a 2-year part time MA in Philosophy and Religion at Heythrop College London (Defunct), University of London. Follow the links for my Personal Statement⁴, Interview Write-up⁵, and Course Outline⁶. I decided not to proceed with the MA but do intend to follow up on₇ the many issues raised.
• During 2016 I assisted with the Appendices of my friend’s PhD Thesis on the Narrative Structure of the Acts of the Apostles, building a website. See "Mansell (Peter) - Bottom Up Reading of Acts".
• In August 2017 I was asked by Michael J. Alter to review pre-publication his book on the theology of the Resurrection. Unfortunately, it turned out to be too much work, and I only commented on the first section.
• In mid-23Q3 I decided to focus as much as I could on my Thesis, so – temporarily at least – axed all ‘distractions’, including this project. However, I’ve decided it’s too important to ignore. Read on!

Summary of Progress during April - June 2026

1. I spent 70 hours in 26Q2 on this Project, or related work (105.5 hours YTD, where for "YTD" - Year to Date - I mean the (academic) year that commenced in October 2025). That's 179% of the planned effort (115.6% YTD). Overall, 9% of my Project effort in the Quarter was directed towards this project (making 4.5% YTD) - as against 4.6% planned (3.6% YTD).
2. I had retained my time allocated to this project at the much-reduced 2 hours per week in 26Q2 but achieved nearly double this, and am around 15% over budget YTD. This was mostly down to various matters, listed below …
3. A spent a lot of time preparing for, and attending, the OBT fellowship weekend in May. I spoke on Resurrection, and – as such – much of the effort expended was booked against my Thesis. Time spent researching various papers by N.T. Wright was booked to this project.
4. I spent some time listening to a couple of sermons by "Stewart (Kenneth) - Sermons" related to a verse in 1 Corinthians 15. I’ve drafted a reply to Jack H but haven’t sent it yet.
5. Following a remark by Mike Penny, I spent some time researching the Testimonium Flavianum of Josephus. I obtained "Schmidt (Thomas C.) - Josephus and Jesus: New Evidence for the One Called Christ", but doubt I’ll have time to read it.
6. Becky raised questions about "Polkinghorne (John) - Science and Religion in Quest of Truth"; I booked time reading the book to my Thesis.
7. I’ve not yet recommenced my ‘original language’ Bible-reading – I had been reading through the LXX in Greek and the OT in Hebrew and a second reading through the Greek NT (both of the latter using Bibleworks) at a leisurely pace₈ but then intermitted again. I’d got as far as reading 2 Maccabees in the LXX and 1 Kings in the Hebrew. For some reason I’ve found the Greek of 2 Corinthians rather difficult (and the text a bit of a rant). This is currently paused until I’ve had time to improve my Hebrew and Greek grammar. I’ve been using "Lambdin (Thomas) - Introduction to Biblical Hebrew" and "Wenham (John) - The Elements of New Testament Greek", but the time is booked to my Languages project.
8. The mid-week Bible Study at St. John’s is still in abeyance.
9. Further details follow:-
   Religion (Total Hours = 33)
   • Below is a table showing the progress on my project to read the OT, LXX & NT in the original Hebrew and Greek.
   • As of the beginning of August 2025, this project is in abeyance (again). I've decided to enhance my grammatical knowledge of Greek and Hebrew before proceding further.
   • The table below has been corrected to reflect the second intermission. The Revised End Date is calculated as 'today' plus the amount of time needed to complete the tasks at the rate achieved during the second period of activity. Hence, it will advance by one day a day until I restart.
   • The explanation after the first intermission is as below.
     1. I'm on my first pass through the OT & LXX and my second pass through the NT.
     2. I intermitted this project between August 2023 and April 2024 (inclusive; ie. 9 months); as well as deferring completion by 9 months, this has thrown out my completion-date algorithms somewhat. For now, I've amended the Completion Aims to reflect the intermission.
     3. I've calculated and used the daily rate of progress achieved prior to intermission to calculate the estimated completion date.
     4. I don't now have as much time to spare, so - as expected - this rate has fallen since the restart.
     5. I've therefore also calculated and used the daily rate of progress achieved since intermission to calculate the revised completion date.
   • I've also read through the Koran, but mostly in English. One day I'll try to read the Koran in Arabic, maybe. Progress on this, and on my first run-through of the NT, is recorded in versions of this report prior to 25Q3.
     

     Testament	Total Verses	Start Date	Intermission	Restart Date	Restart at	Elapsed	Read	V / D	Since Restart	Last Verse Read	Aim	Estimate	Ahead / Behind	Revised
     OT	23,143	13/05/2021	30/07/2023	05/05/2024	1 Samuel 9:25	808	7,469	9.2	4.2	1 Kings 10:22	31/12/2028	11/08/2030	588 Days Behind	06/07/2035
     LXX	28,986	13/05/2021	30/07/2023	05/05/2024	2 Esdras 5:3	808	12,596	15.6	5.9	2 Maccabees 10:5	31/03/2027	10/12/2028	620 Days Behind	13/12/2032
     NT2	7,956	26/12/2022	30/07/2023	05/05/2024	John 8:22	216	3,258	15.1	6.2	2 Corinthians 12:6	31/03/2025	16/11/2026	595 Days Behind	17/05/2027

     
     
   • Kenneth Stewart - Kenneth Stewart - Death swallowed - Sermon 1 (Read / Write, 2.75 hours)
   • Kenneth Stewart - Kenneth Stewart - Death swallowed - Sermon 2 (Read / Write, 1.5 hours)
     → See "Stewart (Kenneth) - Sermons" (4.25 hours)
   • "Groothuis (Douglas) - Review of N.T.Wright - History and Escatology: Jesus and the Promise of Natural Theology" (Read, 0.5 hours)
   • "Instone-Brewer (David) - Church Doctrine and the Bible: Theology in Ancient Context" (Write, 0.75 hours)
   • "Klett (Leah MarieAnn) - NT Wright: Western Christians have misread Heaven, the End Times, spiritual warfare" (Write, 3.75 hours)
   • "McGrath (Alister) - Justification by Faith" (Write, 1.5 hours)
   • "Polkinghorne (John) - Encountering Scripture: A Scientist Explores The Bible" (Write, 0.5 hours)
   • "Schmidt (Thomas C.) - Josephus and Jesus: New Evidence for the One Called Christ" (Read / Write, 5.25 hours)
   • Stewart (Kenneth) - Sermons - 1 Cor 15 - Reply to Jack H (Write, 1 hour)
   • Stewart (Kenneth) - Sermons - Samson - Reply to Jack H (Write, 1.75 hours)
     → See "Stewart (Kenneth) - Sermons" (2.75 hours)
   • "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - 1 Corinthians: 15" (Read, 1 hour)
   • "Vermes (Geza) - Jesus in the Eyes of Josephus" (Read / Write, 2.5 hours)
   • "Wikipedia - Josephus on Jesus" (Read / Write, 4.5 hours)
   • "Wright (N.T.) - General Issues in the Easter Stories" (Read, 0.25 hours)
   • "Wright (N.T.) - Hope in Person: Jesus as Messiah and Lord" (Read, 0.25 hours)
   • "Wright (N.T.) - Hope Refocused (3): Non-Canonical Early Christian Texts" (Read, 0.25 hours)
   • "Wright (N.T.) - Jesus’ Self-Understanding" (Read / Write, 2.75 hours)
   • "Wright (N.T.) - Revelation for Everyone" (Write, 0.75 hours)
   • "Wright (N.T.) - The Vision of Ephesians: The Task of the Church and the Glory of God" (Write, 0.75 hours)
   • "Wright (N.T.) & Borg (Marcus J.) - The Meaning of Jesus" (Write, 0.75 hours)
   Religion Background (Total Hours = 37)
   1. Religion Background - Reading / Writing (Total Hours = 1)
      • "Naziri (Micah Ben David) - Arabs Called 1927 Al-Aqsa Mosque Collapse God's Punishment" (Write, 0.25 hours)
      • Pete's Workshop on the Structure of Acts - Pre-reading (Read, 0.75 hours)
        → See "Admin - Religion - Admin" (0.75 hours)
   2. Religion Background - Admin (Total Hours = 8.75)
      • 26Q1 Status Reports: Religion (0.75 hours)
      • Admin - St John's Recruitment (0.5 hours)
      • OBT Weekend Preparation & Admin (7.5 hours)
        → See "Admin - Religion - Admin" (8.75 hours)
   3. Religion Background - Discussions (Total Hours = 27.25)
      • Becky re "rest for your souls" (2 hours)
      • Becky re John Polkinghorne (1 hour)
        → See "Admin - Religion - Admin" (3 hours)
      • Interaction - Discussions with Mike, Sylvia & Julie (3.25 hours)
        → See "Interaction - Religion - Discussions" (3.25 hours)
      • Interaction - Discussions with Pete, Caro & Julie (0.25 hours)
      • Interaction with Julie, Pete, Caro, Mike, Sylvia, Nev, Hazel, Willie & Gill on Holiday (18.75 hours)
      • Pete & Mike re Ascention versus 'taking up' (2 hours)
        → See "Interaction - Discussions with Pete" (21 hours)
10. Progress (if any) in the current quarter can be obtained from the relevant section of my Summary Task List⁹, and YTD in the current & future “automatic” editions of this report.

Plans for the Near Future

• I’ve retained the much-reduced time allocated to this project in 26Q2 at 2 hours / week to reflect the fact that my Bible-reading project is in abeyance.
• There’s an OBT day conference on 1 Corinthians 15 in August. I need to finalise the following papers before attending:-
  → "Ozanne (Charles) - If there is no resurrection of the dead … What then? An exposition of 1 Corinthians 15",
  → "Penny (Sylvia) - The Resurrection Chapter: 1 Corinthians 15", and
  → "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - 1 Corinthians: 15"
• Otherwise, the items in the list below are those I’d like to address if time allows.
  
  1. Philosophy of Religion:
     1. "Antony (Louise M.) - Philosophers without Gods: Meditations on Atheism and the Secular Life": Continue reading,
     2. "Davis (Stephen T.) - The Mad/Bad/God Trilemma: A Reply to Daniel Howard-Snyder": Annotate,
     3. "Ginn (Roy) - According to the Scriptures": Complete write-up
     4. "Groothuis (Douglas) - Review of N.T.Wright - History and Escatology: Jesus and the Promise of Natural Theology": Read,
     5. "Howard-Snyder (Daniel) - Does Faith Entail Belief": Read,
     6. "Howard-Snyder (Daniel) - The Skeptical Christian": Read,
     7. "Howard-Snyder (Daniel) - Was Jesus Mad, Bad, Or God?…Or Merely Mistaken?": Annotate,
     8. "Hume (David) - Of Miracles": Annotate,
     9. "Insole (Christopher J.) - Realism and Anti-Realism": Read,
     10. "Kandiah (Krish) - Faitheism: Why Christians and Atheists have more in common than you think": Read,
     11. "YouTube - Video - Atheists deny reality": Annotate,
     12. "YouTube - Video - 'It’s impossible for atheists to do this!' …but It’s Not": Annotate.
  2. Science & the Bible:
     1. "Barbour (Ian) - When Science Meets Religion: Enemies, Strangers, or Partners?",
     2. "Instone-Brewer (David) - Science and the Bible: Modern Insights for an Ancient Text",
     3. "Loke (Andrew Ter Ern) - The Origin of Humanity and Evolution: Science and Scripture in Conversation",
     4. "Plantinga (Alvin) & Dennett (Daniel) - Science and Religion: Are They Compatible?",
     5. "Polkinghorne (John) - Encountering Scripture: A Scientist Explores The Bible",
     6. "Polkinghorne (John) - Science and Religion in Quest of Truth",
     7. "Spencer (Nick) - Darwin and God"
  3. Middle East:
     1. "Chapman (Colin) - The Israel-Hamas war and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict",
     2. "Chapman (Colin) - Whose Promised Land? The Continuing Conflict over Israel and Palestine",
     3. "Grossman (David), Schoffman (Stuart) - Lion's Honey: The Myth of Samson",
     4. "Naziri (Micah Ben David) - Arabs Called 1927 Al-Aqsa Mosque Collapse God's Punishment": Read
     5. "Stackhouse (Ian) - Beyond Christian Zionism: A Travelogue of a Former Idealogue: A Travelogue of a Former Ideologue": Read
  4. Bible Reading:
     1. "Bibleworks - Bibleworks: OT & NT", and
     2. "Lanier (Gregory R.) & Ros (William A.) - Septuaginta: A Reader's Edition - Volume 1".
  5. Qur'an / Islam:
     1. "Asad ( Muhammad), Qur'an - The Message of the Quran: The Full Account of the Revealed Arabic Text Accompanied by Parallel Transliteration",
     2. "Burton (John), Qur'an - The Collection of the Qur'an".
     3. "Jones (Alan), Qur'an - Arabic Through the Qur'an", Note₁₀
     4. "Omar (Abdul Mannan), Qur'an - The Dictionary of the Holy Quran: Arabic Words - English Meanings",
     5. "Qur'an - Easy Quran: Arabic Text With Word For Word English Translation",
     6. "Wansbrough (John), Rippin (Andrew), Qur'an - Quranic Studies: Sources and Methods of Scriptural Interpretation".
  6. Hinduism:
     1. "Flood (Gavin D.) - An Introduction to Hinduism",
     2. "Mascaro (Juan) - Bhagavad Gita",
     3. "Narayanan (Vasudha) - Understanding Hinduism: Origins, Beliefs, Practices, Holy Texts, Sacred Places", and
     4. "Parrinder (Geoffrey) - Upanishads Gita and Bible: A comparitive study of Hindu and Christian Scriptures"
  7. Background:
     1. Aeon: Read & annotate papers as they arise
     2. "Dolganov (Anna), Cotton (Hannah M.), Etc. - Forgery and Fiscal Fraud in Iudaea and Arabia on the Eve of the Bar Kokhba Revolt": Read
     3. "Ferguson (Matthew) - March to Martyrdom! (Down the Yellow Brick Road…)": Read
     4. "Finkelstein (Israel) & Silberman (Neil Asher) - The Bible Unearthed": Continue reading
     5. "Instone-Brewer (David) - Church Doctrine and the Bible: Theology in Ancient Context": Read
     6. "Instone-Brewer (David) - Techniques and Assumptions in Jewish Exegesis before 70 CE": Read
     7. "Longenecker (Richard) - Biblical Exegesis in the Apostolic Period": Read
     8. "McGrath (Alister) - Justification by Faith": Read
     9. "Moyise (Steve) - Was the Birth of Jesus According to Scripture?": Read
     10. "Schmidt (Thomas C.) - Josephus and Jesus: New Evidence for the One Called Christ": Read
     11. "Stewart (Kenneth) - Sermons"
         1. Update in the light of Samson & 1Cor. 15
         2. Reply to Jack on 1 Cor. 15 after checking / updating my OBT papers:-
            → "Todman (Theo) - Resurrection"
            → "Todman (Theo) - Thesis - 1 Corinthians: 15"
            → "Penny (Sylvia) - The Resurrection Chapter: 1 Corinthians 15"
            → "Ozanne (Charles) - If there is no resurrection of the dead … What then? An exposition of 1 Corinthians 15"
            
     12. "Taylor (Joan E.) - Jesus and Brian: Exploring the Historical Jesus and His Times Via Monty Python's Life of Brian": Review KCL Conference videos
     13. "Wright (N.T.) - Revelation for Everyone"
     14. "Wright (N.T.) - The Vision of Ephesians: The Task of the Church and the Glory of God"
     15. "Wright (N.T.) & Borg (Marcus J.) - The Meaning of Jesus"
     16. Incorporate downloaded David Instone-Brewer papers into my database.

Summary of Progress to Date

I’ve hived off the history to a separate document¹¹, which still requires a major update. It hasn’t been touched since 2010.

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In-Page Footnotes:

Footnote 2:

• Or if not strictly impossible – rather unlikely, as the candidates for enabling some sort of physical continuity – from luz bones to “corpse swapping” – have multiple problems.
• However, there are some interesting ideas by Dean Zimmerman, most recently in "Zimmerman (Dean) - Bodily Resurrection: The Falling Elevator Model Revisited", that argue the contrary.
• Also, transhumanists – who are almost following a religion – are often hopeful of post-mortem survival. I have no metaphysical worries about “cryonic suspension”, and subsequent resuscitation, but think that uploading is incoherent.

Footnote 7:

• This pious hope has been sitting unactioned for over 15 years now!
• The proximate cause of my failure was missing a deadline for my essay on the Ontological Argument, but a more serious reason was that it was all a waste of time (for me, given my research interests). Peter Vardy had warned me about anno domini, with the claim that original work after the age of 65 is unlikely. I hope this is false, as I’ve ignored the warning, and have now exceeded the following milestone of 70!

Footnote 8:

• I’ve updated the Functor that performs the ‘completion date’ calculations to show two completion dates based on reading rates before and since I intermitted.
• The table that shows plans and progress can be viewed above.

Footnote 10:

• Time to be booked to my Languages Project.

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Table of the Previous 12 Versions of this Note: (of 99)

Date	Length	Title
13/04/2026 19:33:36	12144	Status: Philosophy of Religion (2026 - March)
13/01/2026 13:14:53	11984	Status: Philosophy of Religion (2025 - December)
30/10/2025 18:31:41	11720	Status: Philosophy of Religion (2025 - September)
15/07/2025 10:14:53	14618	Status: Philosophy of Religion (2025 - June)
07/04/2025 00:15:50	14559	Status: Philosophy of Religion (2025 - March)
01/02/2025 00:28:48	14256	Status: Philosophy of Religion (2024 - December)
10/10/2024 00:47:31	12451	Status: Philosophy of Religion (2024 - September)
11/07/2024 23:08:10	11103	Status: Philosophy of Religion (2024 - June)
15/04/2024 00:34:34	6591	Status: Philosophy of Religion (2024 - March)
01/04/2024 20:08:10	6923	Status: Philosophy of Religion (2023 - December)
04/10/2023 21:59:02	7265	Status: Philosophy of Religion (2023 - September)
06/07/2023 00:43:12	10254	Status: Philosophy of Religion (2023 - June)

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Note last updated	Reference for this Topic	Parent Topic
13/07/2026 19:20:38	519 (Status: Philosophy of Religion (2026 - June))	Status: Summary (2026 - June)

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Summary of Notes Referenced by This Note

Heythrop - MA Philosophy and Religion	Heythrop - Personal Statement	Heythrop - Philosophy of Religion	McDade_100729	Ontological Argument
Status: Languages (2026 - June)	Status: Philosophy of Religion (Summary of Progress to Date)	Status: Summary Task List (2026: July)	Theo Todman's Christian Page	Transhumanism
Uploading

To access information, click on one of the links in the table above.

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Summary of Notes Citing This Note

Aeon Papers - Summary Document: 2017-2018	Immortality	Life After Death	Religion	Resurrection
Status: Consciousness Studies (2023 - September)	Status: Languages (2026 - June)	Status: Personal Identity (2026 - June)	Status: Philosophy of Religion (Summary of Progress to Date)	Status: Priority Task List (2026 - July)
Status: Summary (2026 - June), 2	Status: Summary Task List (2026: July)	Status: Summary Task List (YTD: 25Q4 - 26Q3)	Theo Todman's Christian Page	Website - Progress to Date (2026 - July), 2, 3, 4
Website Generator Documentation - Functors, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

To access information, click on one of the links in the table above.

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Authors, Books & Papers Citing this Note

Author	Title	Medium	Extra Links	Read?
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Immortality	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Life After Death	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Religion	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Resurrection	Paper		Yes

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Text Colour Conventions

1. Blue: Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2026

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